Tonight's Live Tweet of Holy Mo

I live tweeted tonight's performance of Holy Mo. To read everything in Chronological order you need to start at the bottom.

atomicfez: RT: @SMLois} Show's over - time to go wipe the paintballs off the set and close down the theatre for another night. #holymo #theatre

shamelesshussy: RT @SMLois Shows over - time to go wipe the paintballs off the set and close down the theatre for another night. #holymo

SMLois: Shows over - time to go wipe the paintballs off the set and close down the theatre for another night. #holymo

SMLois: @travisbedard That's the joke. God is referred to as either Yamma or Yam all show. #holymo

travisbedard: @SMLois I Yam who I Yam #holymo

SMLois: One more chorus of "Love you Yam" and the show is over. #holymo

SMLois: Only about 7 min left in Act 2. Tonight's show has flown by. #holymo

SMLois: When we got to this point Saturday, where no one talks for a couple mins, audience member shouted out "We paid good money for this." #holymo

SMLois: "There is no money in the profession [of acting]." "Then why do we do it?" "The story. The story needs to be told" #holymo

SMLois: We're almost at my favorite lighting cue: LX 77. It's just after this YouTube reference. #holymo

SMLois: Time for our one operatic song of the night, titled "Piece of Turd" #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez I'm guessing you're not going to make it for this production? #holymo

SMLois: Oh - a little Braveheart in here as well. #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } I vote brilliant as well. Been a fan of hers from some time. #Frangione #holymo #theatre

SMLois: Now we have our first sword fight of the show. The swords are wooden baseboard pieces stapled together. SQ = Flight of Valkyrie #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez Don't forget Celine Dion, Mission Impossible, Lassie, & Louis Reil. Lucia is either brilliant or crazy (I vote brilliant) #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } so… Scots Tragedy, Evita, Jaws, Good / Bad / Ugly, Hockey, asparagus (and SJR), and a paintball gun. Oh Lucia… #holymo #theatre

SMLois: Now we'll mix in a little MacBeth. Because why not? #holymo

SMLois: Don't cry 4 me little Spew Boy/My heart will never leave u/I know u will wait for me/& soon will return to me/because I am gorgeous #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez No complaints from folks expecting Sunday School here. Most of them like it. And yes. There's a paintball gun. #holymo

SMLois: Only in #holymo are aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, & reflexology threats underscored by the Jaws theme. #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } anyone expecting trad Sunday School Bible interpretations ought to adjust their expectations before attending #holymo #theatre

SMLois: I'll be right back - gotta go grab the paintball gun and pump it full of air pressure #holymo

SMLois: Throwing an asparagus boquest slow mo into the audience. Caught tonight by Miss Sarah Jane Redmond. #holymo

SMLois: Goliath just hit a lighting instrument with her sword. The audience loved it. And the light is well locked so it won't move #holymo

SMLois: Okay, it's everyone's favorite part of the show: Goliath. (S)he's up a ladder with a hockey helmet on. With a broom brush on that. #holymo

SMLois: "I'm the princess and men only want me for my great big...........kingdom" #holymo (it always gets the audience laughing)

SMLois: @atomicfez Actually, the lighting designer is @bryson. He's swell. #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez The lighting designer and I have worked together a number of times. He knows I'm not a fan, but sometimes its unavoidable #holymo

SMLois: The entire prophet character is defined by a staff with a bell on the end that rings whenever she moved. And its funny. #holymo

SMLois: @travisbedard The bandana is out there. Though I fear that the sign is in the wrong place. OOP. #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez Sorry I couldn't give you the go for that one - I had to actually push the button. I'm now at LX 58.5. #holymo

SMLois: In Act 2 we move from the story of Moses (Mo) to David (Spew Boy) #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } I"ve still got LX 512 standing by, you know… #theatre #holymo

SMLois: Enter the Kit Kat bar. I have a whole case of them in the booth and am going to end up with left overs. #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez The drape is on a track and moves throughout the show #holymo

SMLois: Act 2 is up! #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } LX 51 standing by… #holymo #theatre

SMLois: Last song before Intermssion. Standby LX 51. #holymo

travisbedard: @SMLois BANDANA #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } I'm always amazed at what PT is able to shoe-horn in that space merely by tilting a deck and careful use of drape #holymo #theatre

SMLois: Buffoona (one of my lovely clowns) is blessing the 12 tribes...also known as the audience. #holymo

SMLois: The first act is flying by. We are now about 5 min to intermission. Intermission is also known as those 10 minutes where I run. #holymo

SMLois: I love it when the audience laughs as Mo is given the 10 commandments. #holymo

SMLois: For those who are wondering what kind of set we're working with http://smlois.tumblr.com/ #holymo

SMLois: Lassie, Chariots of Fire & the parting of the Ocean all in a matter of seconds! #holymo

SMLois: 12 days of Christmas meets the 10 plagues upon the Egyptians. "Flies floating freeeeeeeee." #holymo

SMLois: Oh dear. An actress just ran into a set piece. Looks like everyone is alright, but i jumped! #holymo

SMLois: What a great audience tonight: They're banging away on their pots and pans at all the right moments. #holymo

travisbedard: @SMLois After I properly weighted it and everything? #holymo

SMLois: Ever heard a rap featuring "Aunt Jemima" "Betty Crocker" & "Mr. Christie"? I'm listening to one right now. #holymo

SMLois: LX28.5 GO #holymo

SMLois: First Elvis joke of the night. Complete with radioactive jukebox. #holymo (Sorry @travisbedard I didn't tweet the flying palm tree for you)

SMLois: Country music for y'all. "To forget about my blues, I tune into the news. It's the only way that I can take a little mental snooze" #holymo

SMLois: Ooooh! It's my favourite secret Horatio cane moment. I never know if anyone sees it, but I love it. #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } never use "Celine Dion" and "good" in the same sentence without also employing a negative modifier. #Frangione #holymo #theatre

SMLois: There seems to be a large group of high school students in the audience tonight. Wonder what they think of it all? #holymo

SMLois: And a little Celine Dion for good measure.... #holymo

SMLois: @atomicfez True enough :) #holymo

SMLois: Straight from Mission Impossible to The Good The Bad and the Ugly. This show is full of pop culture references #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } THEY'RE CLOWNS! Don't go demanding the Dali Lama! #Frangione #holymo #theatre

SMLois: "Can't I just go kick his head? Why's he got to die?" - That's what I call wisdom. #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } let's watch the master working at speed, folks… quietly now, no distractions… #Frangione #holymo #theatre

SMLois: @atomicfez Unfortunately #Frangione won't be able to see it - she's in a show of her own at the moment. #holymo

SMLois: It's almost at my busiest cue section in the show: a little Mission Impossible inspired chase scene. #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } clowns is the funnnerest! Plus is a #Frangione script, so all is well there. #holymo #theatre

SMLois: @atomicfez You'd have fun in this cast though. Come on, it's a clown show! #holymo #theatre

SMLois: I like to call this part the send up of "2001:A Space odyssey" #holymo

atomicfez: @SMLois } this is almost like sitting in the booth… which is possibly better than being in the cast, depending. #holymo #theatre #Frangione

SMLois: First song of the night "Holy Mo" - Guitar, Mandolin, and a homemade Washtub Bass. #holymo #theatre

SMLois: First sound cue of the show and I don't push the button - it's run from an onstage CD player. #holymo

SMLois: My innovative FOH speech: there is no speech, just a clown with a cell phone threatening death #holymo

The next live tweet of a show will be A Time to Dance on Friday, March 27 as a part of the World Theatre Day 2009 celebrations.

Holy Mo Sneak Peak

Today we did our archival photo shoot for Holy Mo. Here's a glimpse at the show. All photos are by Damon Calderwood.

Meet our clowns: (from l-r) Buffoona (Erla-Faye Forsyth), Guff (Julia Mackey), and Follie (Katharine Venour)Guff & Buffoona Face off.

Mo recieves the 10 commandments from Yamma (along with a book of guidelines for the ministry of health and wellfare)

"You cannot see my face and live"

So those are just a few of the sights you'll be in to see if you come see Holy Mo ;)

Friday Arts Quotes: Opening Night Edition

It's opening night for Holy Mo at Pacific Theatre, so in honor of that, this week's arts quotes are all about audience - the theatrical ingredient that gets added on opening.

"The writer does want to be published; the painter urgently hopes that someone will see the finished canvas (van Gogh was denied the satisfaction of having his work bought and appreciated during his life time; no wonder the pain was more than he could bear); the composer needs his music to be heard. Art is communication, and if there is no communication it is as though the work had been still-born. The reader, viewer, listener, usually grossly underestimates his importance. If a reader cannot create a book along with the writer, the book will never come to life....The author and the reader "know" each other; they meet on the bridge of words. So there is no evading the fact that the artist yearns for "success," becuase that means that there has been a communication of the vision: that all the struggle has not been invalid." - Madeline L'Engle

"When you come into the theater, you have to be willing to say, "We're all here to undergo a communion, to find out what the hell is going on in this world." If you're not willing to say that, what you get is entertainment instead of art, and poor entertainment at that." -David Mamet

"You need three things in the theatre - the play, the actors & the audience - and each must give something." - Kenneth Haigh

Mid Tech Week

Hello. Out. There.

See that mess there on the left? That's where I've been hiding for the past week.  I've been hiding in a dark little room with my binder of awesomeness.  We're mid tech week for Holy Mo and every now and then I wonder how much more information I can cram into my brain (somehow there's always room for more, but I'm not quite 

sure how).   Tonight was our first full dress rehearsal where I actually got to run the show.  At Pacific Theatre the Stage Manager is also the lighting and sound operator, so I look forward to the day when the lighting console and sound computer get turned over to me so that I can have a little practice before the first audience members arrive.  But tonight went well. I only screwed up a few times & none of them were cause to stop the show.  

I'm always amazed during opening week how far forward the shows move with each run through.  The actors get to live and settle into the world of the play and so more discoveries are made as they are immersed in it.  It's an exciting time.  We cut a whole long slow-mo sequence today that had gotten a lot of laughs from the designers yesterday, but it was the right choice.  Not only did it take a couple of minutes off the show, it is also funnier.

I should really get back to sending out my rehearsal notes, but I just wanted to poke my head in and say hello to the rest of the world. 

An Excerpt from Holy Mo Director's Notes

Pacific Theatre's Artistic Director Ron Reed has thrown a first draft of his program notes for Holy Mo up on his blog, so I decided that it was only fair for me to throw a section from the director's notes up on mine.

(Left: Katharine Venour, Erla Faye Forsyth, Julia Mackey; photo by Kevin Clark. )

"Plays that deal with big fat questions, ancient heroes and mystical unseen beings are tricky. It’s hard to make someone invisible. It’s hard to be a hero when you’re just an actor making a living in a city like Vancouver. But then, maybe that’s exactly what makes it possible to be an actor and a hero - the fact that making a living is secondary to that great dance these strange people-performers do with an invisible muse whose presence is so often felt in curious buildings where the lights go out on the hour - matinee and evening after matinee and evening - when people take the time to sit down together to listen and watch. I wonder whether those listening and watching people feel and hear the sign of that muse too, rustling behind a stage curtain, shimmering somehow in the sound around them, pin-pricking their imagination with a catchy tune or an unusual turn of phrase. If you do, let us know."

Morris Ertman, Director

Friday Arts Quotes: Holy Mo Edition

"It isn't easy traveling around the world in a circus wagon with a couple of clowns. The only reason Follie, Bufoona and Guff are still together is because they love each other and need each other, they are family. It hasn't been easy touring all these years, dust in their nostrils as they pull their wagon across windy prairies, through hostile villages, over skin cracking sand dunes and up mad rutted mountain trails. As Follie sings for tomato slinging tavern sailors, she remembers that she could be making a lot more money dong cartoon voice overs. Bufoona pulls out a ratty picture of Cirque de Soliel on nights when audiencese cough, shuffle and move along. When rain starts to fall during the parting of the red sea and soot fingered boys steal backstage props, Guff remembers how much she got paid as a roadie for the Rolling Stones. So why do they do it? The story. They are more than just performers, they are prophets. Sometimes, when they sing around the camp fire, bells will come after quiet thunder and the presence of Yamma will fill the circle. Follie might see a vision, Bufoona might dream a dream, or Guff might burst into ecstatic dancing under the stars. Either way, they seek an undeniable ferociously beautiful Other and their stories are an invitation to the whole world to dance with the Divine."

- Lucia Frangione, Playwright's Notes, Holy Mo (Emphasis mine)

Rehearsal Photos

First read with cast, designers & theatre staff

MUFFINS

Costume designs by Drew Facey

Biographical Evolution

At the beginning of each show, I take time to sit down and revise my biography for the program, but instead of just adding the previous show I worked on to a list of credits, I try to find ways to make the bio personal.

I had to write my first bio for a show in university and it was not very cohesive or smooth, though it still had some personal touches to it. More it was about showing off that even though I was the new kid on the block, I had experience.

Lois is in her second year at TWU, pursuing a major in communications and minor in drama. Lois spent last year learning to appreciate the finer art of stage lighting during TWU's productions of The Mail Order Bride, Defying Gravity, Shadowlands, and Waiting for Godot. She has previously worked on numerous productions for 27th Street Theatre Company in Vernon, including stage managing Little Shop of Horrors and Hotline and assistant stage managing The Tuna Fish Eulogy, Interview and Something's Wrong with Ophelia. Lois is looking forward to working on many other productions in the future.

My third year of university (and five or six bios later), one of the professors decided to write all of the bios based on information they were given on a short sheet of paper. That bio is a little bit different - more a list of credits & things I wouldn't have been comfortable saying about myself.

Lois is a third year TWU student pursing a double major in Theatre and Communications. Recent credits include Cowgirls Gone Wild in the West (Wishbone Theatre), Disney's Beauty and the Beast (VCMS), The Heiress, Two Rooms, Steel Magnolias & Dr. Prescriptions Variety Hour Pt 1 (TWU), Little Shop of Horrors, Hotline, & Tuna Fish Eulogy (27th Street Theatre Company). Lois' skill and dedication will surely lead her into a career in stage management.

My bio for Holy Mo (which opens in 2 weeks) is my attempt to find the best of both worlds: a good variety of credits, while still incorporating the personal touches, and all in 85 words or less.

Lois loves her job as the resident stage manager at Pacific Theatre. It gives her a chance to combine her love for theatre with her compulsive need to organize things; skills she honed at Trinity Western University. Some of Lois' favorite PT credits include: A Bright Particular Star, Driving Miss Daisy, The Woodsman, Mourning Dove & Jesus, My Boy. When not at PT, Lois can be found stage managing dance shows & co-ops, watching her vast collection of TV on DVD or spending time with her delightful friends.

Every time I see a show, I read every bio in the program. Some are personal and only list one or two theatre credits, focusing instead on the person's life history while others are lists of only credits. While I think there is room for both of these different types of biographies to exist (and everything in between), I prefer to read the ones with a balance of the personal with credits, and that is also what I strive to write.

15 Questions with Lois

Date & place of birth:

May 2, 1986; Vernon, BC

Lives now in:

Vancouver, BC

Education:

BA from Trinity Western University with a double major in Theatre & Communications, and a certificate in Media Studies.

If you hadn’t become a stage manager, what might you have done professionally?

I've changed my mind about my career goals many times: the first plan was to do PR in the music industry, but I think that if I were not stage managing, I'd probably go back to school and get my masters in television studies and end up as a professor.

Favourite plays:

Metamorphoses (Mary Zimmerman), Esspresso (Lucia Frangione), Proof (David Auburn), Jake's Gift (Julia Mackey), The Mistakes Madeline Made (Elizabeth Meriwether)

Favourite TV shows (currently airing):

Pushing Daisies (ABC), Dexter (Showtime), How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Favourite TV shows (no longer airing):

Veronica Mars (UPN/CW), Arrested Development (Fox), Wonderfalls (Fox), Six Feet Under (HBO), Slings & Arrows (Movie Channel/The Movie Network), Joan of Arcadia (CBS) & Dead Like Me (Showtime)

What was the last thing you saw on stage that had a big impact on you?

The last thing I saw on stage that had a big impact on me was UBC's production of Unity: 1918 a couple of week's ago. It is an award winning script (and with good reason!), but this production was so visibly stunning. The image of a spinning lantern dangling from the ceiling, a wounded soldier returning on a train (done with the actor standing on a chair on a revolve while a train track was flown in from the ceiling), a giant bonfire and revival meeting behind a cyc, a room full of dead bodies, a scene done entirely in the dark. Each image had the potential to fail hugely, but rather than fail, they inspired.

And the first?

The first play I ever saw was a local production of Annie when I was about six which sort of set up for me the fact that theatre was out there, but the first play that really had an impact on me was the Art's Club's 2001 presentation of Axis Theatre's Flying Blind. My high school was very arts focused and each semester the theatre teacher would take approximately 60 kids on a trip to either Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton to see mulitple productions and learn about the education opportunities in each city. The 2001 Vancouver trip was my first of three, and it was a very eye opening five days in regards to what theatre is capable of. We saw Elizabeth Rex at the Stanley, The Edible Woman at the Playhouse, some terrible musical review at the Gateway, & Flying Blind. What stuck out for me about Flying Blind was it's use of design to help shape the world. I've never been an actor - though I can recognize and appreciate good acting - but I've always been impressed by strong visual elements. I remember after the play going out for pizza with the rest of the people on the trip and discussing the show. I was one of only two students who enjoyed it (along with the two escorts). Everyone else "didn't get it" or thought that it was too abstract. I didn't care whether or not I "got" it - I just wanted to do that - create a world similar to our own, yet not our own that causes people to converse.

Favourite books:

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline L'Engle, the PostSecret books by Frank Warren, & Life After God by Douglas Coupland

Favourite after-show haunts:

Anywhere near Pacific Theatre that still has it's kitchen open when the show gets out: lately that's been either Earls, Cactus Club, or Cafe Barney. We used to always go to Ouisi's but the service there has gotten atrocious and the kitchen has been closing much earlier (besides, who really wants to eat alligator all the time?)

What do you expect to be doing in five years?

I've told myself that if in five years I am bored or burnt out from Stage Managing I will go back to school and do my masters in television studies after all.

What are the personal things that you do in your life simply because they make you happy?

Spend a whole day on the couch watching old TV episodes on DVD even though I've seen them 10+ times, try to laugh as much as possible, take photographs whenever I'm having fun so that I can look at them later and smile.

What would you advice would you give the government to secure the future of Canadian theatre?

I would advise the government that first and foremost, "Ordinary Canadians" really do care about the arts, I would advise reversing the millions of dollars in cuts to arts funding, I would advise the leaders to go take in some of the local theatre - independent, ground-breaking work so that they get a glimpse of the magic being created in their own backyards.

Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

Jesus, My Boy is running at Pacific Theatre until Dec. 27 and I've already begun prep for Holy Mo, which begins rehearsals mid-January.